Cymbals are known to vibrate in an extremely complex fashion, producing a broad spectral distribution of enharmonic components. Faithfully converting these vibrations to electrical signals for amplification, signal processing, and recording presents a number of challenges. “Close-mic'ing”, where microphones are placed in close proximity to the instrument to be amplified, is effective for other instruments such as drums or guitars but is not optimal for a cymbal because of its size, movement, and widely varying spectral content at various locations on its surface. Contact microphones are also suitable for and widely used for drums and guitars; however, contact microphones are problematic for cymbal applications since any contact with or attachment to a cymbal alters or inhibits its natural vibratory characteristics. For these reasons, the most widely-used mic'ing technique is to position one or more microphones several feet away from the cymbal, usually above the cymbal and pointing down at it, thus capturing its overall sound field. This approach has disadvantages in terms of the bulk and weight of the microphone support stands, the cost of individual microphones, additional set-up effort and cost for the microphone support contraptions, and unwanted crosstalk from other nearby instruments.
Cymbals can be very loud when played, which is undesirable when playing in a location where sound levels must be kept low. Electronic drums provide a low-volume alternative to acoustic drums since their volume can be controlled and headphones can be worn; however, currently-available electronic cymbals generally have severe shortcomings in playing feel since their playing surface is usually a resilient material such as plastic or rubber rather than the metallic surface of traditional cymbals, and in nuance of expression since they act as electronic triggers for a limited variety of stored samples rather than using their own natural vibrations. Low-volume metallic cymbals have been developed employing multiple perforations of the cymbal's surface to reduce sound level. These perforated cymbals, however, can suffer from a sound which differs significantly from that of traditional non-perforated or solid cymbals. Whereas traditional cymbals can sound reasonable with no microphones or amplification at all, perforated cymbals require special signal processing in order to achieve acceptable sound quality. This makes a simple, compact, low-cost cymbal microphone or pickup highly desirable in conjunction with perforated cymbals.
Cymbals are designed to swing freely on their stands. No attachment hardware is provided on cymbals themselves since any such hardware attached to a cymbal would interfere with its natural vibrations. Typically, a central hole is provided in the cymbal through which a segment of the stand shaft extends, and the cymbal rests on a resilient washer which interferes minimally with its vibration. When struck, a cymbal may swing on its stand through an arc of forty-five degrees or more. Because of this, a microphone at a fixed location must be distant enough from the cymbal so as not to physically interfere with the cymbal's swing. Furthermore, as the cymbal swings, the distance from a near microphone to the cymbal changes, producing undesirable variation in the amplitude of its output signal.
Various attempts have been made to attach microphones or pickups directly to a cymbal so that the microphone will swing with the cymbal and thereby maintain a constant distance from it. However, as explained above, it has been found that any attachment to the cymbal will inhibit or otherwise alter its natural vibratory characteristics, generally in an undesirable fashion. Schemes employing pickups attached to a cymbal furthermore have to contend with the problem of wire entanglement as the cymbal rotates, and measures have to be taken to limit the cymbal's rotation in order to prevent entanglement, which in turn have the potential to interfere with the cymbal's vibration.